Ultima Fata
by HappyNatsu
Summary: In a world where wild Pokemon have ceased to exist, people who used to call themselves Pokemon Trainers must take up arms against an evil Hell-bent on destroying the last of the Pokemon who survived. However, one of their number holds within them a secret that could end the conflict... Or destroy them all. Rated M for language, blood/gore, and possible sexuality in later chapters.
1. Chapter 1

_**DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN Pokémon NOR ANYTHING ASSOCIATED WITH IT! IF I DID, THE GUY WHO CAME UP WITH THE IDEA OF ASH KETCHUM WOULD HAVE BEEN FIRED ON THE SPOT! (GO RED/SATOSHI!)**_

_**A/N: Hello! This is my first attempt at making a fanfiction. I honestly have no idea what I am doing, I am just winging it after months of procrastinating the start of it. If you enjoy my story, please leave a review. If you don't, please tell me what I can do to make the story better. Without further ado, I shall let you enjoy (or not enjoy, I won't tell you how to live your life) the story!**_

_**Yellow's Sniper encampment, several hundred meters from target base Charlie Tango**_

The encampment was tinged luminescent green through her sniper's scope. She scanned the area for sentries that might alert the rest of the base to the approach of Blue's team. Her sight settled on the chest of a sentry who was taking a rest against the side of one of the watchtowers. She calculated the distance with a bit of mental math, then lifted the reticule so that the "800 meters" mark was resting on his sternum.

She brought her right hand up to her ear, activating the communicator that acted as her direct line back to the Refuge. A shiver ran down her arm as she brushed the camouflage netting that concealed her. She was lying in a small thicket of trees on a ridge overlooking the target, and the chances of anyone even looking there for snipers were low. Still, it paid to be careful.

"Yellow to Green. I am in position and ready to support our ground teams. I have line of fire on approximately 85% of the target base and my sights are calibrated." A moment of silence, and for a second she thought that Green wasn't going to answer. She swore under her breath and reached for the communicator again, but was cut off with a wince as static flowed through the line.

"Copy…Yellow…there seems to be some… -ference with the li-…" Yellow tapped the earpiece.

"Umm, Green? You there? Hello?"

"sorting it ou-…" The line went completely dead for a moment, then a woman's voice came over through the transmission. "This is Green. Yellow, we copy your status. Red and Blue's team are in position, we are only waiting for Silver's team to be ready. Will advise when they have reached the insertion point. Copy?"

"Copy. Yellow out." Yellow squinted through the sight again, double checking her lines of fire on the base. She could see all the way from the barracks on the far east side of the base to the supply depot in the northwest corner. When Blue's team busted the gate, she would begin putting as many rounds into targets as she could before they took cover. Her grip tightened on the handle of the sniper. This base was just another step on the journey. One day, Red would put down the criminal in charge of all of this. And she would be there, by his side.

_**Blue's Team, sixty meters from the north wall of Charlie Tango**_

Blue checked his weapons again. He carried with him two weapons, which he was able to use with a considerable amount of skill. One was a Desert Eagle- style handgun, with which he could put a .50 caliber hollow point bullet through the head of a moving target at 75 meters. The other was a Skorpian machine pistol, with a forty-round extended magazine for extended firefights. For this mission he also carried two pounds of C4 plastic explosive to breach the north gate when Red blew the main gate to the south on the other side of the base.

_Red._ At the thought of him, Blue shuddered. Once, Red had been a kind and loving person, able to make friends and hold conversation with the most talkative of people. Then _that _had happened. He supposed that it could be just the trauma from _that_. They all were affected from _that_. Anyone who wasn't affected by what happened _that_ night had to be a twisted fucking sociopath. But what happened to Red was different. Everyone else had recovered to an extent, tried to put it behind them. But for Red… Red seemed to have never had recovered from what happened. If anything, he seemed to be getting worse. He was quiet now and rarely interacted with anyone. His room at the Refuge was usually empty, even during the night. On the rare occasion that someone did see him when he wasn't on a mission, he seemed to be fighting some kind of migraine. A few times, Blue had caught him seemingly talking to himself. Even Red's Pikachu didn't seem to know what afflicted him, and it had been with him through most of _that_ night.

After seeing the carnage Red left when he was on a mission, most of the Refugees repeatedly stated their gratitude that he was fighting on the same side as him. Blue didn't share the sentiment. Yes, he was glad that Red was with them, but he felt that there was still too much they didn't know about Red's apparent condition. When Red was on a mission, he would never bring a weapon. Blue didn't know why. Most of the other Refugees had taken up "traditional" weapons after… _that_ had happened. Red, however, refused to touch the weapons offered to him. Apparently, he was well-versed in hand-to-hand combat, something that Blue had never known about him before, although they had known each other for years. When technicians evaluated the battlefield after the fact, the ground was always littered with enemy corpses and hundreds of shell casings, but Red never had so much as a scratch on him.

The radio vibrated silently in his ear, set quieter than normal so as not to alert the guards that would probably be listening for anything louder than a soft thump. His voice was a whisper, relaying the information that he had gathered to Green.

"This is Blue. We're clear on the north side. What's the status of the other teams?"

"Copy that. Good work. Yellow is set up on the south ridge and is ready to engage the enemy. Silver and his team are ready to assault the fortress from the east from the slopes of the mountain and report that nobody spotted them on the way up."

Blue breathed a sigh of relief. Without Silver's team in place, the whole operation could go sideways. "What about Red? Any word from him?" There was a pause, then Green came back, sounding concerned.

"I haven't heard anything yet. It's possible that there's some interference preventing me from getting through, but… I think he may have just forgotten to check in or something." Blue gritted his teeth. Damn that Red! Couldn't he stick to a simple plan? Was he that _damaged_ in the head?!

Blue forced the feeling of disgust down. _That's not fair. He's still dependable. He's probably just ignoring us for some good reason… At least it had BETTER be a damn good reason…_ "Alright, keep your ears open. Tell me when he checks in."

"Roger that. Green out."

One of the things that concerned Blue was that Red was the one who had to "knock" on the front door. If he didn't get it done, the rest of the mission was almost surely doomed to fail.

The strategy was for him to destroy the front gates, and then lead a frontal attack on the enemy. Alone. After thirty seconds, the other teams were ordered to deploy into the fight. Normally, the plan for his and Silver's team was simple.

First, the teams would breach the outer walls of the target. Once inside, they would engage the remainder of the guards not engaged with Red at the front gate. Then, they would complete whatever their mission was, perhaps, for example, securing information about the location of some other bases of greater strategic importance to their foe. Lastly, all but five members of the teams would be extracted via armored vehicle. Those five would be tasked with finding Red. The one problem with whatever Red did when he fought was that he would always fall unconscious. When they found him, he would mumble something about being "out of energy." The doctors at the Refuge told them that he was probably simply exhausted after fighting so many guards. The five would secure him and carry him out of the base to a predetermined waiting place, where they would rendezvous with Yellow and make their way to where transportation waited to take them back to the Refuge.

This mission was slightly different from most missions, however. The leaders inside the Refuge wanted to gain insight on how Red did what he did. There was never any kind of injury on him. He never failed to breach the gate, but he never brought weapons, or even explosives. Because of that, the leaders felt that a different approach to this compound would be appropriate.

This was not a simple raid. The story told to the rank and file soldiers was that it was to secure valuable intel from a supercomputer deep inside the fortress. In reality, the supercomputer was not the target at all. While it undoubtedly held important intelligence, the leaders of the Refuge felt that learning the capabilities of Red's combat prowess was a more important data point to gain from this mission. This location was chosen specifically because the layout of the base would result in any assault on the base to be through a frontal entrance, which would cause a high likelihood of Red and Blue's team coming into contact.

Blue's radio crackled to life. "This is Green. Blue, do you copy? Red has reestablished contact and said he's going in in sixty seconds. Get your team ready. I have a bad feeling about this op…"

"Green, it's going to be alright. We'll get this mission done and get back to the Refuge, all according to the plan. If we just follow the plan, nothing will go wrong, right?"

"I know… Just be careful, alright? I… I don't think I could take it if you got hurt or…"

"Green, I know you've been through a lot of tough shit. Far more than you deserve to have been through in a thousand lifetimes. If me getting hurt will cause you pain, then I won't allow it to happen. That's a promise I won't break, Green."

"…Thanks, Blue… that means a lot to me… that you would make that promise…"

"Alright, we're about to run out of time here. I've got to go bust up some base or something, I'll have to call you back."

"Blue?"

"Yeah?"

"I-I… I l-love y-you…Blue…"

Blue's mind, which had been going over the plan of attack, ground to a halt. His heart skipped a few beats and he felt light-headed.

"Umm… I… I love you too, Green," He whispered so that his team wouldn't hear. His heart was pounding out of his chest, like he had just run a marathon.

"Blue… I know I already said this, but… Take care of yourself in there… Please don't get hurt…"

"Green, I made my promise and I intend to keep it." He checked his watch. "We're out of time. I've got to go. We'll talk more when I get back from the mission."

"Alright…. Green out."

Blue motioned to his squad-mates to ready their weapons. There was no sound as they racked rounds into the chambers of their guns with practiced ease. Gold caught his eye as he checked his own two weapons. The look on Gold's face made it clear he had heard the entire conversation.

"What's your deal?" Blue snapped.

"Nothing, nothing," Gold answered, throwing his hands up in mock innocence. "I heard nothing."

Blue glared at him and flipped him off. Gold chuckled and flipped him off as well. Blue turned away and began counting the seconds in his head. _Five…four…three…two…one…_

Several loud _bang_s ripped the night air like tissue paper. Seconds later, the sound of distant yelling erupted, followed by the harsh reports of automatic weapons. The team broke cover and rushed the north gate, moving silently. Even though Red was providing plenty of distraction up front, it wouldn't do to be noticed. The distant, pounding sound of a large caliber sniper rifle made him smile. _That's Yellow for you._ The shots were as if practiced with a metronome set far too fast to play music to, but he knew that Yellow never missed. Every shot would go through someone's chest or head. The team reached the door undetected.

Blue set the charges on the door. Ruby, the man from Hoenn who was tasked with carrying the detonators, motioned everyone to stand back twenty meters and turn away. The shaped explosives blasted the gates inward with a greater force than if a speeding eighteen wheeler had slammed into the massive steel walls.

Less than two seconds later, a similar explosion to the west of the facility destroyed the west gate. Silver's team was now inside the facility as well. Blue peeked around the corner of the destroyed wall. Several of the guards had been killed by the explosion, and by the way that the doors didn't quite touch the ground he could tell that at least three others had been crushed by the heavy gates.

A bullet ricocheted off of the hinge next to Blue's head. Well, someone had survived the explosion. A pity. Blue pulled his head back and pulled out a mirror to see around the corner. His assailant was a young man in his mid-twenties. The man was carrying an M4 carbine with a night-vision scope. His eye was pressed right up to it. _He must be new at this whole night-fighting thing._ Blue motioned to Sapphire, who pulled out a flash-bang from her vest pouch and tossed it towards the man, who was sitting behind a wall of sandbags.

Upon seeing the projectile, he quickly dove behind the cover to avoid blindness. _Perhaps not THAT new,_ Blue thought. However, it gave Blue the opportunity that he needed. He broke from cover behind the half-destroyed wall and sprinted to the fortifications, leaping over them and landing behind the guard. The guard, to his credit, did not hesitate for even a second to bring his rifle to bear on Blue. Blue, to his credit, did not hesitate even for an instant to pull the trigger on his Desert Eagle. The guard's head disintegrated into a bloody mash and he slumped to the ground. Blue stuck his head over the fortification and motioned his squad forwards, past the security checkpoint and into the actual base.

_**Red, South side of the base, five minutes ago**_

It was almost time to destroy the gate. Red was crouched in a ditch less than sixty feet from the south wall and the main gate. Red checked his watch. _Two minutes._ He mentally reached inside himself until he found the great power inside of him.

_Mewtwo? Are you awake? The mission is about to start, and I wouldn't want you to miss it._

_ Ugh… child, why do these "missions" have to occur in the middle of the night? I've only just began to regulate my sleep cycle to match yours, and this is simply throwing it off._

_ Oh, don't be such a baby. I'll make sure we have plenty of time to sleep when we get back._

_ Yeah, that's what you said the last time we did one of these…_

_ …And did we?_

_ …Yes…_

_ Then we have no issue here. Come on, the fun's about to start! Let's get the ball rolling!_

_ Agreed._

Red felt the psychic energy wrapping itself around him, inundating him with a power beyond normal humans. The psychic power enhanced every part of his being. His strength was greater than that of a Tyrannitar. He was more agile than a Weavile, and faster flat-out than a Rapidash. In addition, it cast about him a field of purple-hued energy that would block incoming projectiles and that he could manipulate to gain the advantage in a fight. Also, Mewtwo could sense things he could not and react through the field.

Red rose out of the ditch, a smile that could only be described as crazed on his face. In reality, he wasn't actually as crazed as his face made him seem. The psychic energy just tended to do that to his face. He didn't mind though- he imagined that it made the enemy scared. And scared enemies were easier to kill.

He raised his arms, and two masses of psychic energy shot out from his hands, colliding with the door. He pulled back one fist, and the energy pulled back with it. He struck again with the energy, placing a large dent in the front of the gate. He pulled back his other fist and struck it again.

At this point the entire base was awake. Alarms blared out warnings to the guards, who scrambled from their bunks to aid in the doomed defense of the base. Red, with his psychic energy-boosted senses, heard the muffled _whump_s of the door charges and the distant sound of Yellow picking off targets with her long rifle. He drew back both fists and slammed them into the door, causing a crack to appear in the steel. Red's crazed grin widened, and the psychic energy dissipated.

Red dropped into a runner's stance, purple energy coating his body. His whole body coiled like a spring. For just a second, time itself seemed to pause. Red shot forward in a ball of purple light. As Red impacted against the cracked steel door, it disintegrated beneath him as the incredible force coupled itself with the psychic energy, which was eating away at the very existence of the steel around the crack. The gate, which was large enough for two semi-tractor trailers stacked on top of each other to pass through, exploded inwards.

Before the gates even touched the ground, Red felt the impacts of bullets sparking against his "skin". The rounds shattered off of the psychic field around him, but Red knew that it wouldn't last forever- the shield had a limit to how much punishment it could take.

He surged to the right, moving faster than the eyes of the guards could comprehend. His fist shot out, and the combined force of the initial lunge and his punch sent the first guard flying. He landed ten feet away in a crumpled heap and did not move. Red's next blow snapped a guard's head back, knocking him out cold. His foot lashed out and connected with a guard's testicles, crushing the soft flesh. He grabbed the crippled soldier and thrust his knee into the man's head. With the first three down, he surged again using the psychic power lent to him by Mewtwo into the next duo of guards. He grabbed the two of them and crashed their heads together. They collapsed to the ground, unmoving. Four nearby guards out of Red's immediate reach opened fire with their G36 assault rifles, firing 7.62mm rounds at a rate of eight rounds per second. Red dove for the cover of a stack of ammunition storage containers as the protective shield weakened under the onslaught of lead.

He reached to his com link and opened a dedicated channel to Yellow. "Yellow, I'm having a bit of trouble here. Care to help out?"

"Anything for you, Red," came the playful reply. Yellow was the only person whom Red ever talked normally to. Nobody else understood him except her. She seemed to know what was in his very soul, and she was the only one who had ever seen how he fought, half a mile away through the scope of a sniper rifle. He hadn't told anyone except her what was inside of him.

There was a pause as Yellow re-adjusted her scope, then four shots rang out in less than two seconds. The group of four guards was ripped apart by the .50 caliber BMG rounds, each designed to be able to take out armored targets at extreme range. Their body armor, while advanced, was no match for such raw destructive power.

By that time his Psychic Shield had regenerated itself. "Thanks, they almost had me there." Red suddenly felt something strike the back of his shield. He whirled around to see the lifeless body of the first guard- or what was left of it- collapse to the ground, holding a small pump-action shotgun. What had hit his shield was the blood spatter as the man's head exploded.

"You missed one," Yellow said matter-of-factly over the com channel.

"What would I do without you?" Red said into the headset.

"Probably just be dead," came the reply. Red smiled inwardly (He couldn't smile outwardly anyways, as he was already grinning).

The last three guards were in cover behind a concrete wall, crouched to protect themselves from the deadly sniper fire from Yellow's position. Red cursed. They were dug in, and it wasn't going to be easy to take them down. To make matter worse, they stood between him and the objective, the main entrance to the base.

"Yellow, can you get shots on those three behind the barricade near the main entrance?"

"Negative, Red. Sorry, I can't see them. The top of the wall above the gate is between me and them. You'll have to take them yourself." Red looked around for a possible advantage. His eye caught the shotgun that the guard Yellow had dropped was carrying. It was a small device, no more than two feet long. The pump had a handle on a ninety degree angle to the rest of the gun, parallel to the pistol grip. It was designed for close-quarters combat. _Perfect._

Red snatched the gun from the dead man's hands and racked a round into the chamber. He took off at a sprint towards the concrete barricade protecting the men. When he was six feet away he jumped towards the four-foot tall barrier, clearing it easily. At the height of his jump, directly over the three guards, he pointed the shotgun downwards. He discharged the weapon directly into the surprised face of the first guard. He landed and turned, racking another round into the chamber and blasting the second guard. He turned the weapon on the third man and racked another round in. Suddenly, he felt the weapon leave his hands. He watched it skid across the pavement, far out of reach. It took him a split second to realize that the man had kicked it out of his hands. He turned back to the man, angry-

He felt the man's fist collide with his face. The Psychic Shield absorbed the blow, but Red was shocked that he had been hit and stumbled back a pace. He lashed out with his fist, faster than the normal human eye can process. Instead of making contact, however, he watched incredulously as the man parried the blow with his forearm, deflecting Red's punch harmlessly into the concrete barrier. The rebar-reinforced two-foot thick concrete wall shattered under the force of the blow.

Red lashed out with his foot, trying to sweep the man's legs. The man jumped over his feet and lashed out with his own foot, connecting with Red's chest. The force of the kick sent Red flying backwards, but he landed on his feet. Red felt a strange rage well up inside of him. _No human should be able to follow my movements, but this guy is blocking everything I throw at him!_ Red's grin turned into more of a grimace. _I went through Hell, and this power is my "reward," if you can even call it a "reward". It's not fair that some guy can match my power without having gone through what I had to! _Red shot forward again, launching a lightning fast salvo of punches at him. The man dodged the flurry of punches and grabbed his arm as it shot past him, then punched Red hard twice in the chest with his left fist. Red pulled away, the Psychic Shield entirely dissipated. _Shit, this guy punches like a freight train!_ Red stepped in towards him, forcing him to engage in close combat. They fired off punches at lightning speed, their blows similar to what one would have seen from two dueling Hitmonchan, but the agility of the two meant that nothing found its mark. Finally, Red got fed up and lashed out with psychic energy, punching the man hard in the stomach with a purple fist. The man staggered backwards, and Red made full use of his predicament. He landed three blows in quick succession to the man's chest, then grabbed the man by the ears and forced his head down to where his knee was quickly rising to meet the man's face. The man's nose crunched and his eyes rolled back in his head. Red threw him to the ground. He stood there a moment, breathing hard. This was not supposed to happen. Nobody could oppose him for even a second before now. Not in close combat.

Red turned and began walking towards the entrance to the base. As he did so, he did not see that the man who had fought him had risen from the ground, a grenade in his hand. He stumbled forwards, fighting the concussion and the multiple fractured ribs that Red had given to him. As he did, he stumbled out of the cover offered by the top of the gate and into Yellow's line of fire. He primed the grenade and drew back his arm.

_**Yellow's Sniper encampment, several hundred meters from target base Charlie Tango**_

Yellow's eye caught movement. One of the men that Red had mentioned was following Red… with a grenade! She took aim through her scope, carefully adjusting for the wind and distance, and smoothly pulled the trigger.

Nothing happened.

Confused, she checked her rifle. Was it jammed? No. The problem was much simpler than that. She had run out of ammunition! She grabbed another magazine and dropped the old one out of the rifle. She slapped the new one in and worked the action, drawing a new round into the chamber. She realigned the sights on her target, the panic rising in her throat. Red didn't see the man, and it was too late to tell him via com link- the man had already primed the grenade and was about to throw it. She smoothly pulled the trigger again. The firing hammer hit the center of the bullet perfectly, igniting the gunpowder and propelling the half-inch wide bullet at a rate of a thousand feet per second towards its target. She watched through her scope as the grenade left the man's hand, already traveling towards its target, Red. A half-second later, the bullet ripped through the man, causing him to spasm and collapse. "Shit," she thought, watching the grenade, "Shit Shit Shit-"

_**Inside the Southern Courtyard, twenty meters from the base entrance**_

Red sensed something behind him. He whirled about and saw a small round object flying towards him and he recognized it as a grenade. He lifted his hand and backhanded it out of the sky, sending it flying over a low wall to the left of the barracks building. He heard a muffled _whump_ as it went off. _That's strange. I would have thought that a grenade of that size would have been louder. _He looked back to its origin, and saw the man from before in a mangled heap. He opened the com line to Yellow. "Nice shot," he told her. "It's a clean kill. You save my sorry ass again."

"Well, that's my job, isn't it?" Yellow sounded a little flustered.

_**Ten meters west of the barracks, seventy meters north of the Southern Courtyard, Blue's infiltration team, two minutes ago**_

Blue and his team moved silently towards the Southern Courtyard, where Red was apparently still keeping the enemy busy. Blue and his team had dispatched several teams of guards along the way, but they had not suffered any casualties. Blue's com link buzzed. It was Green. She was back to her businesslike self. Blue smirked. She knew how to keep her cool during a mission. It was one of the things he had long admired about her.

"Blue, come in. Yellow reports that Red is still in the Southern Courtyard. This is our chance to get intel on how he fights. You need to get to the courtyard as quickly as possible."

"Roger that, Green, I'll get it done." Blue switched off the com link before she could say anything else and motioned for his squad to increase pace. They half-jogged to the end of the building, where a low wall separated them from the courtyard.

Blue took a few steps back, then prepared to scale the wall by jumping and climbing over it. Just as he was about to start his run, an object came flying over the wall. Blue recognized it as s grenade. He caught a glimpse of the timer. _01.93_. There wasn't enough time to grab it and throw it back. Time seemed to slow down. He dove onto the grenade, shielding his teammates. The blast threw him several meters. He landed face up, staring at the floodlights that gave illumination to the area. _The stars are so bright tonight_. He heard Green screaming into his ear, but the sound was a million miles away. _I'm sorry. I'm sorry I couldn't make it back…_ His eyelids touched as darkness enveloped him.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon! I know, it's hard to believe, but I don't! Look it up!**

**A/N: Sorry taking so long, life's been hectic for me. Before I start I would like to say thank you to JCraft596 and PokeSpeBannette for their reviews (especially you, JCraft, that one still cracks me up XD). You guys inspired me to keep writing, and this is the result. I will try to have Chapters 3 and 4 up as soon as possible, part of the reason this took so long was because I was working on them alongside this one, so they are almost complete! :) Anyways, enough of me rambling, enjoy!**

_**Surgery Observation room, six thousand feet below the peak of Mount Silver**_

Green stood facing the glass, watching in a daze as half a dozen surgeons operated on Blue. Tears streamed openly down her face as they pulled fragment after fragment of fabric, metal, and plastic from his chest. She hadn't moved since she had arrived in the room, twelve hours ago. Red and Yellow were also in the room. Red sat in the corner, his legs crossed beneath him and his eyes boring a hole into the steel floor. Yellow sat next to him, still dressed in her combat gear that she had worn during the mission (minus the camouflage netting). Her huge sniper rifle was propped up against the wall to her right, still bearing the dirt and grass it had accumulated. She hadn't yet gotten around to her usual routine of cleaning it after every mission. Chuchu, her Pikachu, sat with Red's Pikachu between the two former trainers, resting up against Red's Pikachu and slumbering. Red's Pikachu was not sleeping, but rather staring intently at the glass, seemingly intrigued by the material being pulled from Blue's chest.

The two Pikachu were just about the rarest Pokémon on the planet. Only about twelve of the evolution chain resided within the facility. Aside from the two of them and their child Pichu, there were only nine others left in existence. Most Evolution Chains had at least forty to fifty, and some, such as the Ratata Chain, Nidoran Chain, and the Zubat Chain, had upwards of one thousand members. Of course, there had been literally _millions _of these Pokémon before the Omicron device had activated.

The automatic door to Green's right opened with a _swish_. Footsteps made their way across the room towards her, but she didn't turn to face the intruder. The footsteps walked right up next to her and stared in silence through the window at where Blue was still being operated on. Her eyes never strayed from the operation on the other side of the glass, but she knew exactly who it was.

"Koga."

"Green. I see you're all alone down here." He hadn't noticed Red and Yellow sitting in the corner.

"I thought that was your poisonous odor I smelled. What brings you to this humble operating ward?" Her voice dripped with sarcasm. She was in no mood to deal with Koga right now. Unfortunately, he gave her no choice in the matter.

"Come now, is it so hard to believe that I wouldn't come down to watch over a member of the Council of Leaders, not to mention a damn good soldier, to wish him well and that he recovers completely?"

"Cut the bullshit, Koga. You wouldn't save a drowning Skitty if it didn't benefit you in some way. Blue was just a _pawn_ to you. A means to an end_._" She spat the word "pawn" out, as if it were Arbok venom from one of the vials on Koga's belt.

Koga's face remained motionless. "I have no idea what it is that you are talking about. I am simply here on the behalf of the Elite Council, who sincerely wish to know Blue's condition and whether he will be able to resume his duties as both a soldier and as a member of the Leader's Council within a timely manner, or if we will have to… _replace_ him."

Green felt the anger rise within her._ A "timely manner"? "Replace him"? Who the hell does he think he is?_ _I ought to beat the ever-loving shit out of this son of a bitch! _"I already told you to cut the bullshit." She finally turned towards him, her eyes two glassy stones, revealing no emotion beneath their smooth exterior as they stared into the black eyes of the teal-haired man. "Spit it out. What do you want?"

Koga's face remained impassive, although his head cocked to the side in a falsely quizzical manner. "I said it once before, and although I will repeat myself once I would not like to have to repeat myself a third time. I came here pay my respects to a man who was such a great leader and inspiration to us all, and who will be _sorely_ missed."

Green's anger could no longer be suppressed by her self-control. It began to seep out of her iron box where she kept her emotions when she didn't need them. "Stop talking about Blue like he's dead."

Koga feigned ignorance of her emotional state. "Well, by the looks of him he will be soon." He glanced at the operation in the other room. "I heard he jumped on a live grenade. Hehe, what an idiot! You're supposed to _run away _ from those, not throw your face on it-"

Green's leg shot out and slammed into the side of Koga's knee. He gasped in pain as his leg collapsed under him. As he fell Green pulled out a small knife from the heel of her boot. As soon as he hit the ground she was on top of him, her full weight pressing down on his back. She rested the knife against his jugular and put her mouth right up to his ear, her tear-stained lips brushing his earlobe. She spoke softly, but Koga could feel the pain and hate that her words carried.

"Blue is _not _dead. Don't act like he is. He _is_ going to survive. You'll see." Koga turned his head with some difficulty so that he could look her in the eyes. Anger blazed in his eyes and he opened his mouth to speak. She braced herself for whatever verbal poison he was about to spew.

"My apologies, Ms. Green. I meant no disrespect to Blue." Green's grip faltered slightly when she heard those words. _"Did… Did Koga just apologize?!" _ Koga immediately took advantage of her hesitation, rotating his body like a snake and grabbing Green by the waist. He picked her up and slammed her back into the ground, straddling her. With his left hand, he grabbed both of her wrists and pinned above her head. He grabbed her knife and pressed the cold steel against her throat.

"You little bitch! That little kick fucking hurt! I should slice your throat open just for that!" he pressed the knife a little harder. "If I were to lean like _this-_" he pushed the knife tighter to her neck, causing a trickle of blood to run down her neck- "then just by applying half my weight to the blade I can simply fucking slice through your fucking throat."

Green gritted her teeth. She struggled feebly against the ninja on her stomach, but she couldn't get her hands free. She relaxed her muscles, realizing that resistance would only get her killed in the name of "Self-defense". "Bastard. This is exactly what you wanted, isn't it, you sadistic motherfucker? You just wanted some excuse to kill me."

Koga pondered it for a moment, then shrugged. "Yeah, that _just about_ sums up my _aims_ today. I planned _all day_ just to come down and kill some insignificant bitch. Don't get so full of yourself." He relaxed the pressure somewhat on her neck. "Now, tell me or I'll slit your throat. Did Blue get what we were after, or-"

Koga was thrown against the wall. He leapt to his feet, only to be struck again and thrown to the opposite side of the observation room. He managed to make it onto one knee before in invisible force grabbed him by the throat and slammed him to the ceiling. Twin thunderbolts struck him in the next instant, sending intense waves of pain throughout his entire body.

Red was standing in the middle of the room with Pikachu and ChuChu on his shoulders, fixing Koga with a gaze that could freeze a rampaging Aggron in fear. His hand was raised and cupped, as if he were holding someone's throat. Koga's hands shot to his throat to grab the invisible hand that held his throat, but his grasping fingernails dug only into his own skin. His eyes bulged out as the blood flow and oxygen traveling to and from his brain was cut off. His vision began to darken, the edges becoming black splotches. Through his blurry vision, he could see the killing intent of the man in the red jacket. Right then, he knew that he was about to die.

Incredibly, it was Green who saved him. "Red, let him down!" Red turned to her. She was standing now, grasping her left shoulder with her right hand and clutching a piece of cloth to the knife wound in her neck with her left. She glared up at Koga. "I personally would love to see him die, but it's going to be impossible to explain to the Councils."

Red looked from her to Koga, then back to her. He dropped Koga unceremoniously. Koga collapsed to the ground, motionless. Red strode over to him and kicked him in the ribs, causing him to unconsciously curl into the fetal position. Pikachu and ChuChu jumped from his shoulders, standing on all fours on either side of Koga's head, electricity sparking threateningly on their cheeks. Red grabbed Koga by the front of the shirt and pushed him up against the wall. He smacked Koga across the face a few times to rouse him to consciousness.

"Wake up." Koga stirred, his eyes slowly focusing on Red's face without recognition. When he finally realized where he was and who was in front of him, his eyes shot open and he tried to push himself farther away into the wall, as far away from Red as he could get.

"Aggh! Get away from me, monster!" Koga reached for a vial of poison from his belt, only to find it missing from its place. It hovered about four feet from his head, suspended on Red's psychic power. His eyes bulged wider.

"If you ever lay a hand on Green, or Yellow, or any of my other friends, not even Arceus himself will be able to prevent me from ripping you apart piece by piece." Red drew back his fist. Koga recoiled and threw up his hands to defend himself as Red's fist shot forwards, seeming to shatter the air itself as it slammed into the PlexiSteel wall next to Koga's head, leaving a crater four inches deep in the titanium-reinforced carbon-fiber wall.

"You think I'm a monster now, it's nothing compared to what I will become if you ever try anything like that again." Red dropped the still-flinching ninja and walked over to the door, opening it by pressing a switch on the wall. Yellow grabbed Koga and pulled him upright, pushing him towards the door. "Come on, fatass. Get outta here." Koga whimpered slightly as the barrel of her other weapon, an M9 pistol with a golden Pikachu engraved on it, dug into his lower back. She marched him out the door and into the hallway, dragging him out of sight in the direction of the elevators. Pikachu and ChuChu jumped on her shoulders as she left, still giving death glares to the semi-conscious ninja.

Red turned towards Green. He motioned towards her neck. "Are you alright?"

Green checked the cloth pressed against her neck. It was soaked crimson with her blood. "It's still bleeding. I think that bastard hit something important." She grimaced in pain. "Fuck."

"Let me see it." He approached Green, his hand prying away the cloth. He grimaced. "Yep. Artery. Just nicked it." He looked around the room. "No medical kit here." He took another look at her neck. "You probably won't last long enough for me to get another one."

A flash of fear crossed Green's face. "Well, if we there isn't one in here, and we can't get another one, what the hell are we supposed to do?" Red raised a single hand, tendrils of purple-hued energy extending from his fingertips.

"I can sew it with Psychic Energy." He looked up at her. "Unless you want to take the chance of getting a medkit from somewhere else…?"

Green shook her head. "I guess I don't really have a choice, do I?" Red shook his head. "Alright, let's get this started," she replied, her voice devoid of emotion. The tendrils moved from his fingers to her neck, threading themselves into her skin and winding around the wound, sealing both the skin and the wall of the artery. Green winced as the energy pierced her skin again and again. The entire experience was more bizarre to her than painful, since the psychic energy was literally writhing under her skin.

After about two minutes, Red leaned back, dropping his hand from Green's neck. The writhing sensation faded, but she could still feel the presence of the energy as it held together her skin and artery. "There. That should hold it." Green reached up and felt her neck. It was still slimy from the blood, but she could feel that the skin had closed. The only sign of the wound were the thin bumps where the psychic energy still was, under the skin. Her eyes widened. "Wow… and it's completely healed?"

Red shook his head. "No. It will have to heal on its own, but the energy will hold it together until it does and then dissipate." The corner of his mouth curled up a little. "But you won't bleed out."

"Well, that's good! I really didn't have bleeding out in an observation room on my schedule today," Green said sarcastically. The corner of Red's mouth twitched up again. It could almost be called a smile.

"I need to get cleaned up," Green said. "I'll be back later. Are you going to be okay being alone here until Yellow comes back?" Red nodded. "Okay, see you later." Red sat back down in the corner where he had sat earlier.

As she was leaving, she looked back over her shoulder. "Hey Red…" Red looked up. "Watch over Blue, would you?" Red cocked his head quizzically. "I feel like he needs someone to watch over him right now… And you're the best person I can think of to do it. I really feel like I can trust you, Red."

"If there's something Blue never needs, it's someone to protect him. He can take care of himself. He's strong like that." He actually smiled now, for the first time in months. "But yes, I will watch over him if it makes you feel better."

Green smiled too. "Thanks, Red. It means a lot to me. It really does." She left Red to his task of watching over the man on the other side of the glass, alone with just his thoughts.

After she had left, Red stood up and walked over to the glass. "You're going to be okay, Blue. I promise."

Deep inside Red's mind, Mewtwo shook his head. Shielding his thoughts so that Red would not hear them, he began talking to himself.

"Ah, the human capacity for faith… Sometimes it amazes me. There is no chance that that boy could recover. His injuries look to me as if they are too steep. But yet, Red still believes that he will. Stupid as his faith may be, I suppose that it was that same faith in me that allowed me to merge with him that day… So I suppose that since it saved my life, maybe it can save that boy too. The power of faith is too strong, too unpredictable, to be able to calculate…"


End file.
